I have a silly question:

The written dialogue (and the corresponding acting) on DOOL have have improved umpteen fold. Having looked at the Scriptwriter's page that Toups awesomely maintains, its quite clear to see, the scriptwriters haven't changed:

Janaury:

Sofia Landon Geier: 4; Susan Kirshenbaum: 3; Bruce Neckles: 4; Jodie Scholz: 4; Michael Slade: 6

February:

Sofia Landon Geier: 3; Susan Kirshenbaum: 4; Bruce Neckles: 3; Jodie Scholz: 5; Michael Slade: 4

March:

Sofia Landon Geier: 5; Susan Kirshenbaum: 5; Bruce Neckles: 4; Jodie Scholz: 4; Michael Slade: 5

April:

Sofia Landon Geier: 3; Renee Godelia: 1; Susan Kirshenbaum: 4; Bruce Neckles: 3; Jodie Scholz: 4;Michael Slade: 5

May:

Sofia Landon Geier: 5; Susan Kirshenbaum: 4; Bruce Neckles: 6; Jodie Scholz: 3; Michael Slade: 5

June:

Sofia Landon Geier: 6; Susan Kirshenbaum: 3; Bruce Neckles: 4; Jodie Scholz: 5; Michael Slade: 4

July:

Sofia Landon Geier: 4; Susan Kirshenbaum: 4; Bruce Neckles: 4; Jodie Scholz: 4; Michael Slade: 3

August:

[s.W.S.N.B.N.]: 2; Jeanne Marie Ford: 1; Sofia Landon Geier: 4; Susan Kirshenbaum: 4; Bruce Neckles: 4; Jodie Scholz: 3; Michael Slade: 5

In fact, its been remarkably stable.

Breakdown writers give the breakdowns to the scriptwriters who write the dialogue, and then I assume they get edited. Breakdowns seem to have more to do with pace. My question is: How do writers like Jodie Scholz and Bruce Neckels go from being craptastic to fairly good in such a short period of time? Is it because of better breakdowns provided, better editing of scripts, or less interference from the Head Writer? Also, how does this explain how a good scriptwriter like Sofia Landon Geier managed to write good scripts regardless of the Headwriting regime (although she was a tad sucky when she started under Langan, she got good quickly).

In my demented head, I always confused Jodie Scholz with Jodie Sweetin from Full House and pictured Scholz to look like Sweetin frozen in time as a 6 year old child churning out DOOL scripts I feel bad for Scholz et al if they actually have talent and were overstepped. I also imagine their jobs must have been highly frustrating over the last few years, what with the dumbing down of scripts and the a*holes like me on the internet mocking their skills.

My opinion is that the script is only as good as the breakdown which is only as good as the plot...

Take that for what you will.

There are folks who polish [!@#$%^&*] into shine with their scripts (I swear Mary Sue Price was the sole reason I stuck with GH through Megan McTavish's horrible year at GH), but for the most part, not even a good script writer can take away the pain of the actual intent of the scene.

Amanda L. Beall at AMC, unfortunately, is in that category. No matter how witty and quippy her dialog is, it doesn't change the fact that the scene in the breakdown is slanted in a direction I might not be happy with, and unfortunately, the dialog has to follow suit. And I might be considered blasphemous for saying this, but ALB gets a little irritating with some of her scripts.

And then you have editors like Elizabeth Korte on GH who have been rumored to mark up and hack up entire scripts to favor certain characters -- so sometimes you can't even blame the script writer for it.

But that's my opinion. I'm an unpublished writer so, whatever.

In my demented head, I always confused Jodie Scholz with Jodie Sweetin from Full House and pictured Scholz to look like Sweetin frozen in time as a 6 year old child churning out DOOL scripts

OMG!

bump

Thanks for the response, R Sinclair. I'm left wondering if the daytime writing process is overly complicated - or more specifically, I don't think the breakdown writers should be as an important part of the process as they are.

I think I'm gonna get a copy of the book that is mentione here and maybe I will be enlightened...